A soaking wet Chris Pratt covers the new “Must Issue” of Entertainment Weekly. Pratt is everywhere right now with Jurassic World coming out on June 12. Universal Pictures released a clip of Pratt doing stunt videos. EW divulged a video of Pratt getting wet and some excerpts, which are mostly other people talking about Pratt. His Jurassic co-star, Bryce Dallas Howard, loves him so much: “Basically at this point I’m like, ‘Chris Pratt for president.’” Chris Evans adds, “You can’t fake what he has. And I think most people are clever enough to see through people who are putting that on. That’s just who he is.”
Speaking of his good buddy Evans, Pratt decided not to follow in the same shoes as Marvel’s Offenders. Other franchise movie stars must have watched the Ultron tour and felt relieved that they weren’t the ones stepping in it. The worst part was when Evans and Jeremy Renner called Black Widow a “slut” and “wh*re.” A few apologies followed. Evans tried to redeem himself, and Renner doubled down. Now Pratt wants to apologize in advance. He wants to have his bases covered just in case he calls the raptors “sluts.” This letter is both funny and douchey at the same time:
I want to make a heartfelt apology for whatever it is I end up accidentally saying during the forthcoming #JurassicWorld press tour. I hope you understand it was never my intention to offend anyone and I am truly sorry. I swear. I’m the nicest guy in the world. And I fully regret what I (accidentally will have) said in (the upcoming foreign and domestic) interview(s).
I am not in the business of making excuses. I am just dumb. Plain and simple. I try. I REALLY try! When I do (potentially) commit the offensive act for which I am now (pre) apologizing you must understand I (will likely have been) tired and exhausted when I (potentially) said that thing I (will have had) said that (will have had) crossed the line. Those rooms can get stuffy and the hardworking crews putting these junkets together need some entertainment! (Likely) that is who I was trying to crack up when I (will have had) made that tasteless and unprofessional comment. Trust me. I know you can’t say that anymore. In fact in my opinion it was never right to say the thing I definitely don’t want to but probably will have said. To those I (will have) offended please understand how truly sorry I already am. I am fully aware that the subject matter of my imminent forthcoming mistake, a blunder (possibly to be) dubbed “JurassicGate” is (most likely) in no way a laughing matter. To those I (will likely have had) offended rest assured I will do everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t happen (again).
[From Chris Pratt on Facebook]
I feel two different ways about this letter. First, this could be Pratt giving Evans a good-natured ribbing. That was my first thought when Pratt claimed to be half-drunk during a Reddit AMA last month. I also thought this was the case when Pratt gave GQ acting lessons while drunk on Fireball whiskey. Pratt has spoken about how he rarely drinks anymore because of the calories involved. He’s putting these “drunk” stunts on for effect, and it may have something to do with drunkface Evans’ behavior.
Then there’s the other side of this advance apology letter. Pratt’s also making fun of everyone who was offended by the Ultron tour. Perhaps he thinks everyone overreacted, and this is his way of asserting his opinion under the cloak of humor. Such an attitude discounts people’s perfectly valid reactions to the Marvel dudes’ behavior. So yeah. His letter is funny with a thinly-veiled layer of douche.
Photos courtesy of EW.com & WENN
Maybe he knows he might really say something (unintentionally) stupid. He kind of has that frat boy look about him, but seems self-aware enough about it.
I don’t see the point in defending Evans and Renner though (so it’s not clear to me if he’s really doing that). I didn’t think they needed to be arrested or anything, but I don’t know why actors can’t accept that something that might seem funny to them probably isn’t funny to someone else. Sometimes attempting to be funny can fall flat. You can’t force people to find something funny just because you think it is. I don’t know if it’s even if a question of being offended — it’s just highly possible people really didn’t think you were funny!
All three are typical dudebro types so he probably sticking up for them because of that.
I think he knows his backlash is coming and he’s trying to get ahead of it. I don’t blame him.
The letter seems sincere to me, not douchey at all. I just love him and I’m SO excited for “Jurassic World” though, so that might be clouding my judgement!
I had so much love for Chris Pratt, but in the last year or so it’s like the veneer is cracking and we see peeks of the real Chris.
True. First his comments about enjoying killing animals, then all this toilet humor, now this. No. He still braids hair nicely, but that’s it about him.
This line ” His letter is funny with a thinly-veiled layer of douche.” sums up Chris Pratt perfectly. He’s always come of as kind of a douche that hides behind humor to throw people off. I’m sure once he gets comfortable with his superstar status the full depth of his douchiness will be unleashed and the funny won’t work anymore.
Noooooooooo… don’t even say it! I so want him to be awesome and cool and respectful and kind… gosh, why are all good looking men kind of douches?! Sigh. Well, I choose to hope.
Pratt, pretty please, DO NOT disappoint us.
I thought the letter was meant to have him covered in case he does or say something stupid, but also used it to mock those who lynched Evans and Renner.
And people are eating it up.
Pratt by name prat by nature
let’s be honest. he’s not that good looking to be posing like this on a magazine cover. like… meh. his head is too big.
Those who mock “political correctness” do so, until it’s their turn to be offended. And there isn’t a person alive who can’t get offended.
I also find that people who hate political correctness are afraid of change, and resent being called out for racist or other offensive comments and expressions they are accustomed to using. This makes me like him less.
Plus… is it WORSE to take a word out of your vocabulary than it is to be demeaned, belittled, reminded of centuries of oppression, sexually harassed, etc.?
If you have that much trouble being respectful, you’re the problem.
Yes, GNAT and Brittney B, thank you! I was just talking to someone about this the other day who said we live in a in a world that’s “too PC”.
I don’t know. I think it’s more than that. We see often times that pitchforks come out because people latch on to a usage of the word, regardless of the actual context or broader message. I think just as often the anti-PC crowd is against kneejerk reactions that lack common sense, critical thinking and are just overall intellectually lazy.
Yes. That term itself just makes my blood boil.
Dismissing “political correctness” is a privilege that only exists for those who aren’t categorically oppressed. “We used to be able to say this stuff and get away with it” = “we used to live in an insular world where no one called us out on our s**t, and the people we offended had so little power, they couldn’t even voice their dissent.”
Hateful language and sexist double standards were NEVER okay to the people who are targeted. It’s the privileged majority that’s having trouble with a reality that’s been obvious to the rest of us all along.
Brittney B – perfectly put! 😀
Political correctness = respect, plain and simple. Agree completely with Brittney B that dismissing political correctness is a privilege.
I don’t know. Overall, I’m in favour of political correctness. I do think Evans and Renner were out of line for making sl*t jokes, considering that they were promoting the movie to both adults and children. Even though it wasn’t meant to be harmful, I can see how that type of language can have a harmful influence on the younger generation’s way of thinking.
That said, I think they misspoke. I think many of us are guilty of making off-colour jokes. I’m a full believer in equal rights for everyone – women, people of all different sexual orientations and gender identities, people of all races and nationalities. I’m a white, straight male and I recognise that I have many privileges because of this. I would never tell anyone to get over themselves for being offended.
But I would be lying if I said I had never thrown around words like “wh*re” and “sl*t”. I’ve never called anyone these words aggressively but I have used it flippantly for both women and men. I’m cool with promiscuity as long as you’re careful and not playing mind games with people. I have jokingly used those terms among friends when referring to people or fictional characters who are said or implied to be promiscuous. It seems like Renner and Evans were doing the same thing but forgot that they were using a public platform to promote the movie. Evans apology seemed genuine while Renner was an asshole about it, and probably does fit the mould of privileged white man not allowed to make his politically incorrect jokes anymore.
Despite Renner’s attitude to his comments, I don’t believe that someone like Evans was trying to assert his power and put down the “minorities”. I’m not saying he should be let off the hook for his comments but some of the Internet outrage over it was like they had murdered a puppy. This also applies to Benedict Cumberbatch and his accidental use of the term “coloured people”. That comment was not meant to offend anyone – Cumberbatch just wasn’t up to date over the correct use of terminology. There was also some controversy over the casting of the Sand Snakes in Game of Thrones. Internet users perceived that the actresses were all too light to play them. The Dornish in the books are described as “olive-skinned” and the show has consistently cast olive skinned actors to play these roles (even if some were browner than others). The actresses they cast were Maori, Singaporean-English and Italian-American. The latter actress was even described blond, blue eyed and fair skinned in the novels and the writers still received accusations of “whitewashing” despite casting a darker actress.
I think it’s great that we’re showing more awareness towards oppressed people today and long may it continue! There’s still a lot of work to do in this area. But at the same time, there are times when it goes a little overboard. I think political correctness is a good thing overall but as with everything, there needs to be balance. Not every slightly insensitive comment or decision is a calculated attack to bring “minorities” down or a form of domination. This is why people get tired with political correctness. Because sometimes innocuous statements or actions get blown out of proportion.
Well, the main thing is ‘intent is not magic’. Even if we don’t mean to offend or be hurtful, we occasionally are, through ignorance and carelessness. I agree it’s very different from being intentionally harmful, but the hurt still remains. I found it best to welcome corrections and treat any such mishap as a learning experience… and now I’m much more careful about how I speak, even in jest.
Thoughtful and sensible post Sean
It’s funny. Let’s not invent problems where none exist.
Yep.
Seriously. This guy makes a self-aware joke about himself and about how people nowadays are on a hair-trigger about being offended…and people get offended by it. Makes the head spin.
And before anyone jumps all over me, I majored in Women’s Studies at Vassar in the early nineties – at the time the global epicenter of political correctness. People were spelling the word ‘women’ as ‘wimmin’ because you didn’t want the word ‘man’ in there, since that was the patriarchy saying women were incomplete without a man (I’m not kidding). The fact that this person apologizes in advance for saying something ‘tasteless and unprofessional’ is related more to the celebrity gotcha culture than anything else.
I don’t know this actor’s work at all and I am not familiar with his statements, so he may have said all sorts of obnoxious things previously.
Just from the above statement, though, he sounds more like a nervous insecure actor who’s been berated by his manager in advance and is trying to cover his bases, only to be excoriated by the general public eagerly seeking offense at every turn. And I say that as a womyn.
Agree with you PennyLane.
*highfive
I’d agree with you. From this statement alone I wouldn’t judge him. But unfortunately I’m aware of the things he has said before and .. wow.. so much douche there.
I get why it’s funny… but we’re not inventing problems where none exist. BIG problems DID exist in the Marvel promo tour. Every time we call out sexism or racism, it gets a little more difficult for people to spread it or consume it with no questions asked. It’s very, very important.
Jeremy Renner didn’t “accidentally” double down on his whore remarks. He didn’t overlook the deep, lingering connotations of his comments simply to “make people laugh”; he STILL hasn’t bothered to acknowledge that there’s a double standard at all. We didn’t overreact. And if Chris Pratt decides to casually remind everyone how fun it is to kill animals (again) during this press tour, I’ll most certainly not be writing it off as a light-hearted attempt at humor.
Anyway. That’s my two cents. I doubt he’ll say anything sexist, but if he did… it wouldn’t be the product of exhaustion. If you don’t have deeply held beliefs about the inferiority of women, you don’t resort to sexism when you’re “exhausted”. I’m so sick of that excuse, and I don’t think it’s funny to reference it. We all do stupid things when we’re tired or stressed; we don’t all resort to hateful language or ethnic slurs.
I agree with everything you said.
Amazingly well put!
+1 (billion)
But Chris Pratt did none of that. He shouldn’t have to apologize for them simply because he’s started in a Marvel movie. That’s when thisPC business has gone too far. I don’t apologize for the statements of people who work in the same school district as I do. It would be ludicrous.
I laughed so hard at this letter that I almost peed.
I have to agree. Laughingly read it to my hubby who also snickered.
I don’t know. I think you are giving him too much credit in that he had motives behind this.
I think it is much more linear thinking on his part
A. Dude, my friend said something stupid in his press tour and got flayed.
B. Man, I totally know I’m going to say something stupid on my press tour It’s bound to happen. (Wife Anna nods her head in agreement)
C. Wouldn’t it be funny if I just wrote my apology now. Totally. People will love it.
This is what I think. He’s an oaf and he knows it. He was being funny. People need to lighten up instead of looking for reasons to be offended.
YES!
Bingo! Some people are so cynical lol
In the words of Andy Dwyer, “Nailed it!”
I found his pre apology very funny. We all say stupid things that can be taken out of context. So now I find him adorable, hot, and clever!
Hey, this is just as a request, but — can we please stop using the word “douche”? Really please? Pretty please??
Maybe it’s just because I’m getting old, but it makes my heart sink to hear that word used as the ultimate negative term. All through my childhood I remember hearing kids say, “Don’t be such a girl!” because being a girl was a loser thing. And saying “what a douche!” as the ultimate insult nowadays seems to be a continuation on the verbal assault on femaleness.
It’s just that, well, I’m in my mid-forties and quite frankly I thought that as a society we would be A LOT farther along in terms of gender equality by now. I can’t tell you how much it disheartens me to hear women also use the word douche as an insult. This is us! It’s from us! It’s women’s medical care and women’s health needs that we even have this thing called a douche, and now we’re using something from women’s health care as the worst thing in the world to call someone. It just makes me sad.
Sigh….how I long for the day when being female is not considered to be an insult. Just a request, not a requirement.
I totally agree, Pen. Same with the negative connotation using the word c*nt. I like mine.
Douches and douching is actually not healthy for vagina because it messes with the normal microbiota of the vagina by messing with the pH. This leads to harmful bacteria growing and killing off of the good bacteria which causes the development of diseases like vaginosis, yeast infection, and pelvic inflammatory infection. When someone’s called a douche it like saying they are harmful. It’s not about putting down women since douches aren’t even something that women need since the vagina is a self cleaning body part. The use of douches is actually linked to misogynistic thinking that believes that the vagina is an inherently filthy organ ( because it’s attached to women and because of menstruation) and so needs to be cleaned with chemicals in order to be deemed not disgusting. Once upon a time women were even encouraged to use harmful products like Lysol as a douche because of this sort of thinking. So using douche as an insult is not a crack at women.
People are reading way to much into this.
@PennyLane: Can’t agree with you on CP’s motives and intent with the ‘pre-apology’, but I’m totally with you on the use of the word douche. It kind of bugs me everytime, and though I don’t think it is the ultimate insult–in fact, I think people use it when simply calling someone an a**hole is too much–I give you all the thumbs up for your articulate explanation of why it should be retired from its present use completely.
Getting back to CP and how to describe the ‘letter’, though: I’ll just say it smells of a *core* of dudebro (which makes a nice replacement for douche here, to me) and utter prat, with the thin layer on top actually the self-deprecating humour that I don’t really think he believes any more.
Regardless of his intent, I’m with him. It’s funny. There’s so much faux outrage at every single little thing these days. I understand being politically correct to a degree since we’re supposed to be a more open and understanding society these days…but people will find ANY little thing to get upset about. Americans LOVE to be outraged.
So Chris Pratt is a clone of Chris Evans. Both are jerks.
The fact that there is an article being outraged about his pre-apology means he made the right call.
Honestly, I’m having trouble having any other reaction than happiness that someone out there knows how to correctly use the future-past tense in the English language. His (publicist’s?) statement is gloriously correct in syntax.